
Qass. 



Book- 



rr 






'i^J J-^^-f^-^, 



A DISCOURSE 



ON THE DEATH OF 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

LATE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 

DELIVERED TUESDAY MAY 2. 1865 IN THE 
DOROTHEEN-CHURCH, BERLIN 



BY 



HENRY P. TAPPAN DD. LL D. 



=-§-=:: 



BERLIN 

PRINTED BY G. LANGE. 






A DISCOURSE 



ON THE DEATH OF 



ABKAHAM LINCOLN 

LATE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 

DELIVERED TUESDAY MAY 2. 1865 IN THE 
DOROTHEEN-CHURCH, BERLIN 






BY 



HENRY P. TAPPAN DD. LL D. 



BERLIN 

PRINTED BY G. LANGE. 



-V- 



•»•• i. 



\ 



* V 










!roF^i53Bi>' 



TO HIS EXCELLENCY 



N. B. JUDD 



ENVOY EXTEAORDINARY AND MINISTER I'LENIPOTENTIARY 

OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, AT THE COURT 

OF PRUSSIA, 

THE FOLLOWING DISCOURSE 

ON THE DEATH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, TO WHOM HE 
WAS NOT ONLY OFFICIALLY RELATED, BUT ALSO BOUND 
BY THE TIES OF INTIMATE CONFIDENTIAL AND TENDER 
PERSONAL FRIENDSHIP, AND IN COMMEMORATION OF WHOM 
HE ORDERED THE FUNERAL SERVICES PUBLICLY HELD IN 

BERLIN , 

IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED 



BY HIS FRIEND 



THE AUTHOR. 



PREFACE. 



More than half a century ago the rights of Free -Labor 
were acknowledged and established, in Prussia, by the 
Edict of Oct. 9. 1807. 

By the law of March 9. 1857, the sublime principle, 
that no slave can set his foot on the soil of Prussia, can 
breathe the air of Prussia, was proclaimed. The moment 
he steps within the boundaries of Prussia, lie is free. 

For the rights of Free-Labor, and to banish from the 
soil and the air of America the foul and blighting taint 
of slavery, a dreadful war has been carried on for four 
years. At the close of this war, and in the very hour 
of victory and triumph, our. great Leader has fallen, and 
sealed the great and holy cause with the blood of mar- 
tyrdom. 

The American Minister in Berlin, well known for his 
devotion to this cause , inviting the cooperation of Ameri- 
cans resident in Berlin, made arrangments for holding 



public funeral services in honor of the illustrious dead, 
and to aftbrd a suitable opportunity for the public ex- 
pression of a sympathy which seemed well nigh universal. 
No official invitations were given, and the whole 
assemblage was voluntary. It was gratifying to find the 
Dorotheen-Church filled to its utmost capacity. The au- 
dience was composed of persons of all ranks and classes ; 
a Representative of the King, the Prime Minister, other 
officers of the Government, members of the House of 
Representatives, Diplomatic Ministers of different nations, 
citizens of Berlin, strangers from other countries, and 
Americans. 



ORDER OF THE FUNERAL SERVICES, 



VOLUNTARY on the- Or-an. 



CHOKAL. 

Jesus, nieine Zuversicht, 
Uiid mcin lleiland ist ini Leben ! 
Dieses weiss icli, sollto iiiclit 
Sicli mein Herz zufrieden geben? 
Was die lange Todesnacht 
Mir auch fiir Gedankeu niacht. 

Jesus, er, mein Heiland, lebt, 
Ich werd' auch das Leben schauen, 
Sein, wo mein P^loser lebt, 
Warum soUte mir denn grauen? 
Lasset auch ein Haupt sein Glied, 
Welches es nicht nach sich ziehtV 



LESSON and PRAYER. 



MUSIC. 

Sei getreu bis in den Tod, so will ich dir die Krone 
des Lebens geben. 

Musik von Neithardt. 



DISCOURSE 
by Rev. H.P. Tappan, D. D. of New-Yoi'k. 



MUSIC. 

Selig biad die Todten, die in dem Ilenn sterben, sie 

ruben von ibrer Arbeit. 

Musik von Kahler, 
fiir Mannerstiiniuen von F. Seliulz. 



ADRESS by Rev. F. W. Knunmacber, Tb. D., 

Court-preacher at Potsdam. 



CHORAL. 

Seid getrost und bocberfreut, 
Ibr seid alle Cbristi Glieder; 
Gebt nicht Statt der Traurigkeit, 
Sterbt ibr, Cbristus ruft eucb wieder, 
Wenn einst die Posaune klingt, 
Die durcb alle Griiber dringt. 

BENEDICTION by Pastor Vater, 



A, 



Linid all the convulsions of the World there goes forth 
a voice, as if music were changed into the waves of light, 
or, as if the waves of light were only the breatli of jMiisic 
— a voice consoling, soothing, commanding, "/>t^ ■still, and 
knotv that I am GocV*). 

If the Spirits, who surround the throne of God looking 
down upon the earth when its masses were upheaved and 
torn asunder by conflicting elements, were filled with dis- 
may at the seeming chaotic confusion and ruin, then they 
heard the voice, "Be still, and know that I am God". 
And they became silent, and were comforted, and waited 
patiently. Then, in process of time the crust of the earth 
was fixed, and mountains and hills, and vallies and plains, 
and streams and rivers, and lakes and oceans appeared, 
and the earth was clothed with verdure, and became the 
beautiful and happy habitation of rejoicing creatures. 

So, also, in the moral and political agitations of 
Mankind, society has often been shaken to its foundations, 
and persecution and woe and sorrow, wrath and war and 
tumult, terror and desolation appeared to be establishing 
their reign upon the earth. The sweep of the Barba- 
rians from the North over the Roman Empire, the irruption 
fo the Ottomans, the conflicts of the Reformation, the 
thirty years war of Germany, the wars of Spain in the 
Netherlands, the civil wars of England extending through 
centuries until Magna Charta culminated in the Bill of 

*) Psalm XLVI, 10. 



~ 10 — 

Rights, the French Revolution, the wars in the time of 
Napoleon, presented such scenes of terror and desolation, 
and filled the hearts of Millions with dismay. But there 
were souls whom the voice, "Be still and know that I am 
God", penetrated; and they hore and had patience, they 
labored on in the cause of truth liberty and charity, and 
did not faint, and they had their reward: New energies 
of humanity came into being; fairer forms of civilisation 
appeared; and knowledge, liberty, and Christianity were 
advanced. 

The war of the American Revolution was a war of 
sorrow and suffering; but the results were glorious: the 
foundations of a new Empire of freedom were laid, and 
preparations made for a new and happier development of 
the human race. But the work of Washington was not 
complete. A poi'tentous evil lingered upon the continent. 
The Declaration of Independence had affirmed "that all 
men are created equal; that they are endowed by their 
Creator with certain inalienable rights ; that among these 
are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness": while 
under the Constitution of the United states slavery con- 
tinued to exist. In our country the elements of an ex- 
treme democracy, and of an extreme despotism attempted 
to live together. The founders of the Constitution hoped 
that slavery would die out. It did die out in the northern 
states: it survived and increased in the southern states. 
Opposing forms of social life , opposing political ideas were 
the result. The "irrepressil)le conflict" spread and became 
more intense , until it broke out into open and bloody war. 

During four years this war has prevailed. Who can 
adequately describe the sacrifices and sufferings of this 
war! Our land is filled with widows and orphans; in 
our dwellings are weeping, lamentation and woe; tens of 
thousands of our brave young men have fallen in battle; 



— 11 — 

tens of thousands have been starved to death in southern 
prisons; loyal households have been visited with outrage, 
plunder and murdei-, or have been driven away and hunted 
like the partridge upon the mountains ; mutilated men 
are seen everywhere; and fair and fruitful fields have 
been reduced to desolation. While this war was in pro- 
gress who can tell of the anxiety and dismay! IMen's hearts 
failed them, and they grew pale with fearful forebodings. 
The triumph of our cause was despaired of at home and 
abroad. We were ridiculed and scorned as the (/i«united 
States. Multitudes in joy or in grief, accordiug to their 
sympathies, looked upon the Great Republic as a failure. 
But above the noise of battle, and above all the weeping 
lamentation and woe, and above all fear and scorn, the 
serene voice still went forth, soothing, consoling, and 
commanding, "Pie still and know that I am God". Our 
President heard the voice, and his tried commanders heard 
the voice, and the hosts of brave men in the field heard 
the voice, and the hosts of the people heard the voice. 
The Nation did not despair. The effort was renewed 
with unconquerable energy. The victory was won, and 
the cause of freedom and humanity has gloriously 
triumphed. 

It was when the joy of victory was at its height, and 
all hearts were thrilled at the approach of peace; and 
w^heu our good I*resident indulging in no proud exulta- 
tion and no vindictive feelings, but full of mercy and 
forgiveness, was intent upon plans of reconciliation, 
and of reconstructing the shattered Union; and when 
dreams of forgiveness, of injuries healed, of love re- 
vived , of brotherhood restored , and of the glorious and 
peaceful future of our country rose up before him ; it 
was in these hours, fondly regarded as hours of retur- 
ning peace and good will that conspiracy ripened, ancl 



— 12 — 

the hand of the assassin smote him to the earth. A new 
and unexpected terror suddenly flashes into the eyes of 
the people, a new and more poignant grief pierces their 
hearts. We are now a nation of orphans:' the Father of 
his country is dead. Again the land is filled with weeping 
lamentation and woe. It is a mingled storm of passion 
that sweeps over the land: it is love, grief, despair, and 
indignation. 

But above this storm of passion the serene voice is 
heard once more, consoling, soothing, and commanding, 
"Be still and know that I am God". Believe ye people, 
that God still reigns, and that his purposes embrace the 
rights of humanity. Behind this new terror God's de- 
livering angel stands with smiling face. 

Who can say that this new lesson was not needed to 
teach our country, and to teach the Nations, the utter 
demoralisation, the barbarousness , the meanness, the in- 
famy, the unscruj^ulous and unsparing ferocity of the 
slave power? 

Who can say, that this new lesson was not needed to 
prevent the generosity and kindness which sprang up in 
the path of victory from degenerating into a weakness 
that miglit leave the country open to new perils , and 
delay the full and perfect triumph of freedom and hu- 
manity? We might in our pity have taken the benumbed 
serpent to our bosoms and have warmed it into acti- 
vity, only to be stung afresh. Vmt look at this long 
train of iMourners! A funeral procession from Washing- 
ton to Baltimore, from Baltimore to Philadelphia, from 
Philadelphia to New York, from New York to Albany, 
from Albany to Buffalo, from Buffalo to Cleveland, from 
Cleveland to Columbus, from Columbus to Indianapolis, 
from Indianapolis to Chicago, from Chicago to Spring- 
field; one funeral procession eighteen hundred miles 



- 13 — 

long; weeping and indignant millions bearing the mur- 
dered President to liis grave! We trust in God tliat there 
will break forth no wild spirit of vindicliveness. But, 
one thing is certain: this people is now nerved for all 
the duties of the hour. Not a trace of slavery or of the 
slave power will be left. There will be a stern puri- 
fication of the land. Whatever is necessary for the se- 
curity of the nation, the stability of the Union, the per- 
fection of freedom, and the protection of all the rights 
of man, will be done. " Life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
happiness" will be guarded by adamantine shields. 

One gracious fruit has already sprung from this great 
sorrow, and that is the sympathy of the nations. It is 
a spontaneous sympathy: it is a universal sympathy. 
Governments and peoples alike give expression to a deep 
and tender condolence. The multitude collected here to 
day is one of the manifestations of this generous and 
spontaneous sympathy. It is wonderful how grandly the 
virtues of this great and good but unpretending man stand 
up around his grave and make their irresistable appeal 
to all human hearts. His character is transparent: all 
read it: no one questions it. IJy his death, he*has conse- 
crated his country's cause afresh. Mankind look upon 
him as the martyr of Freedom and Mercy. He is the 
sanctified representative of his country's cause. In paying 
homage to his virtues, they pay homage to that cause. 
Around the grave of Lincoln, the nations of the Earth 
justify the struggle of America. The people and the 
Captain of the people are both glorified by his death. 
This lively sympathy, this generous and fitting homage 
draw the old and the new world into a fraternal embrace. 
Are not all prepared to say, America belongs not to it- 
self alone; it belongs to the world, and now that it is 



_ U — 

purified it will jilay a grander part in illustrating and 
promoting the brotherhood of Nations? 

And now assembled as we are Americans and Ger- 
mans and individuals, also, of other nations, on an oc- 
casion so painful, and yet an occasion that is not without 
consolations, and fair promises, what can we do that will 
be more appropriate, or that will chime more harmoniously 
with the feelings which have drawn us together, than to 
bring before us the character of tliis man, and the na- 
ture and spirit of that cause in which he was the leader 
and to which he has fallen an honored victim, and last 
of all, the wisdom and fidelity with which he fulfilled his 
great and sacred trust? 

Abraham Lincoln was a laborer, and the son of a 
laborer. He had few advantages of education. A pious 
mother taught him to read the Bible. This to him was 
much, for he never ceased to read it, and made it the 
man of his counsel and the light of his path. For short 
periods he attended a common school in Kentucky where 
he was born, and in Indiana to which State his father 
emigrated. But his education was essentially a self- 
education.- His strong and supple arm felled the trees 
of the forest and opened the fair fields of pasturage and 
corn. He was a son of that beneficent industry which 
has made all the improvements of the world, created 
all the wealth and comforts of the world, and led on 
all the civilization and refinement of the world. While 
his arm wrought, his mind thought. He was a free man 
in the great wilderness. He was free to improve the 
earth, and to improve himself, and to take part in build- 
ing up a new society. There is a wonderful stimulus 
in this freedom where so many possibilities are open be- 
fore one. The far off settler in a western wilderness may 
amass property, take part in founding a community, be- 



- 1 f) — 

come one of its pillars, and grow into a social moral 
and political power, an clement of the great nation. 
Thus thousands and tens of thousands are developed, 
and the new States spring into being. Abraham Lincoln 
gifted with sagacity, honest and worthy aims, and steady 
perseverance, availed himself of every thing that could 
minister to his manhood, and faithfully met the claims 
of duty in the relations around him. He read books as 
he could find them , and sought for them as he wanted 
them. He became, early, a public man; and his read- 
ing was governed mainly by the exigencies of his life. 

There are, in general, two forms of education: One 
is the regular and prescribed form of institutions of learn- 
ing, where men are systematically trained to the acqui- 
sition of knowledge and to mental developement. The 
other is found in the relations, circumstances, events, 
exigencies, and duties of human life. He who has the 
good fortune to begin with the first, in order to become 
a practical and useful man must be moulded and 
finished by the second. The completeness of education 
lies in both. Under the second form , education has no 
limits, but grows with time and opportunities. He who 
has not the first may, through diligence, supply his 
deficiencies, by means of the second. He who has only 
the first, as a recluse student may advance knowledge, 
but cannot be a great actor in human life. Some of 
the greatest actors in public aflairs have been formed 
in the second way. Richard Cobden, who has just 
passed away from us, was formed in this way. In our 
own history, Washington, Franklin, Jackson, and Henry 
Clay are noted examples. When a man's origin is lowly, 
it adds the more to his glory when he becomes a great 
man. Such an one absolutely conquers fortune. Abraham 
Lincoln labored with his hands in a community of labor- 



— 16 - 

ers, who by labor were founding states. There was no 
imperial idleness. Every thing was done by hard, man 
ful, creative, productive labor. It was man asserting his 
lordship over nature. 

Aliraliam Lincoln felt himself imjjelled to become one 
of tlie leading spirits of the West; and thus he grew to 
be a lawyer and a politician. Pie studied the history, 
the constitution and the laws of his country. He guided 
himself in his pursuit of knowledge by the wants of his 
position, and the wants of the community in which he 
lived. He gained knowledge, to apply it: He thought in 
order to act: And the exigencies of a contemplated action 
reciprocally drew out the guiding principles, and collected 
the necessary facts. In such a state of tilings, the mind 
is wrought up to a wonderful activity. All thought is 
concrete, all knowledge runs into real life; and all the 
pressing circumstances and wants of life impel to thought, 
and seem to be looking about for knowledge and in- 
formation. 

The intellectual development of Lincoln under this 
discipline may be summed up in three particulars: First, 
a keen and accurate observation and discernment which 
grasped facts and truths in their bare and massive reality, 
estimated their weight and value, perceived their relations 
and bearing, and the uses to be made of them. This was 
accompanied with the power of stating them so plainly, 
and vividly, that what he saw himself be made others see. 
The power of his discourses and debates did not lie in 
what is popularly regarded as eloquence, but, in conviction 
produced by unquestionable realities. 

Secondly, a power of clear and straight forward rea- 
soning from secure premises. Lincoln was naturally a 
logician. Without any training in scholastic logic, or any 
consciousness of logical forms, he never failed in logical 



— 17 — 

accuracy. The perspicacity of liis mind enabled liim to 
look directly through the facts and principles to the con- 
clusion. And so natural and easy was the form of his 
argument that his hearers seemed to he carried along in 
the channel of their own thoughts. One thing strongly 
characterised him, and that was a pervading and quiet 
consciousness of the strength of his position. He argued 
from conviction, and felt the truth through his whole soul. 
Hence he argued without anxiety, and never felt tempted 
to do any injustice to his opponent, by mistatement, 
concealment, or sophistry. It has been remarked of him 
that he generally stated the argument of his opponent 
with more clearness than he had stated it himself. Dis- 
cussion with him was a fair and honest battle for the 
truth. 

Thirdly, a power of vivid illustration, and of convey- 
ing trutlis and forming arguments, by anecdotes generally 
of a humorous character. He had apparently an inex- 
haustible supply of these. While they amused by the wit 
and humour which they contained, they often spared the 
necessity of a formal argument by flashing out the truth 
at once. He has been severely criticised for indulging 
tliis propensity. But it was so much a part of him that 
he could hardly repress it without ceasing to be himself. 
In that early rude western life, his genial disposition and 
native humour led him to converse with the people in 
this way. It grew into a habit : it characterised him : it 
was a part of his logic: it was a mode of teaching, a 
mode of persuasion, a way of subduing enemities, of 
diffusing kindliness and reawakening good will. To the 
people, and probably to himself, he would no longer have 
been Abraham Lincoln , had his flow of anecdotes entirely 
ceased, A teacher among the Ancients taught by fables 

and was accounted wise and pertinent. A collection of 

2 



— 18 — 

his fables is still preserved to us. Could a collection 
of Lincoln's anecdotes be made together with a history 
of the occasions on which they were uttered , they would 
probably be found not to be inferior to the fables of 
Asop in the force of their truths and tlie pungency of 
their wit. 

This gift so agreable and useful to others, implied a 
cheerful and elastic temperament well fitted to endure 
the anxieties, trials and toils to which he was destined, 
and which might have crushed him had he been diffe- 
rently constituted. 

The intellectual development of Lincoln had, of course, 
its basis in himself, in a happy natural constitution; but 
taking form from the conditions and exigencies of his life 
it qualified him precisely to meet these conditions and 
exigencies He became thus an eminently practical man 
in the sphere in which he was placed. But, the general 
habitude of being thus created, quickness of apprehension, 
readiness of self-adaptation , and skill in action, formed a 
preparation for events circumstances and duties which 
lay beyond that sphere. The same was true of Franklin. 
Such a man seems to have collected within himself a 
reserved force ready for ever contingency of human life, 
ready for every task of duty which Providence may impose. 

Doubtless there are others who have gained the same 
preparation, who do not find the same occasion. Lincoln 
belonged to a class of men who form the reserved force 
of society for great emergencies and important duties. 
He was one of the best specimens of this class. This 
reserved force is particularly important in a Democracy 
like our own , where the highest offices are not forbidden 
to the aspirations of any one. Unworthy men may oft- 
times gain the ascendency. But the evil sooner or later 
finds a limit. There are other spirits at work in the 



— 19 — 

great community, and the man appears , as by a law of 
nature, whom the hour and the duty demand. It was 
just in this way, that Lincoln himself came forward in 
a liigher sphere of action. 

There were otliers in the Republic of equal or of 
greater ability, but there could hardly be found one of 
greater virtue. It was in his unquestionable integrity 
])atriotism, humanity, goodness and purity — all combined 
that liis greatness lay. 

Here, as in the case of his intellectual development, 
the basis was in himself, in a happy constitution of his 
social and moral nature. Those who knew him early, 
and who have known him long, and who have known him 
intimately in all relations, concur in the testimony, 
which they give of his genial, unselfish, kindly, forgiving, 
generous and honest nature. He was always true to the 
form of character originally impressed upon him : none 
of his gifts were suffered to run to waste, to die out, 
or to become perverted. In the formative periods of 
society there are many and peculiar temptations to evil, 
as well as many and peculiar opportunities of doing good, 
lie appears to have steadfastly resisted the former, and 
to have faithfully improved the latter. Amid the tides 
of life which were flowing into the great West, he was 
a landmark of principle and duty, of upright dealing, of 
true philanthropy, of manly independence, of public spirit, 
and of patriotic devotion. In his family, he was affectio- 
nate and gracious: among his friends, simple hearted and 
trustful: among the people at large, a man without guile. 
He was not a politician in the too common acceptation 
of the term, for he had not the selfish ambition and the 
cunning arts of the demagogue. But he was a politician 
in the true accc^ptation of the term, for he aimed to ex- 
pound the constitution according to the intention of its 



~ 20 — 

founders, to enlighten the people while he acknowledged 
the sovereignty of their will, to promote the public good 
by legitimate measures, and to consolidate the Republic 
by truth and justice. So transparent were his virtues, 
that even his opponents did not deny them. As for 
enemies, he had none, except those who were also the 
enemies of his country. 

Such was Abraham Lincoln ; a product of Ame- 
rican Democracy; and a faithful representative of its 
principles and its scope, of its power and its bene- 
ficence. As all aristocratic lines must have taken their 
beginning in common men who acquired distinction 
by violence or by illustrious deeds, so he in other times 
or in other nations might have been the founder of a 
new line of Nobility. Belonging to a country which allows 
of no artificial distinctions of rank, which acknowledges 
no Aristocracy but what is common to all good and great 
men, he will leave an unadorned name to his posterity. 
But although unadorned, it cannot lose its innate nobi- 
lity and royalty as the name of one who vindicated the 
rights of man by proclaming liberty and justice to the 
slave, and who wisely bravely and faithfully served the 
Republic in the days of her greatest peril. 

The struggle of America which now closes in triumph 
and glory, and with which Lincoln will be forever asso- 
ciated, as the great leader, and the patriot-martyr, in its 
fundamental elements , is a struggle for the rights of labor. 

Labor is the great power of good in the world. God 
and nature are always at work. Man, by the labor of 
his mind, and by the labor of his hands, improves the 
rude world given to him by God and Nature. By the 
first he achieves science, art, and all useful inventions. 
The labor of his mind guides the labor of his hands. By 
the second, he levels the forests and cultivates the earth. 



— 21 — 

delves into the mines, and constructs implements and 
machinery, opens highways and spans the rivers with 
bridges, builds houses and ships, and manufactures all 
the fabrics of use and beauty. By labor has man changed 
the face of the earth, made it more beautiful, and filled 
it with good things. 

Endowments of mind, and the power to labor, we 
possess without our own choice. By voluntary labor we 
become good, meritorious, and godlike. Among all who 
are to be valued, cherished, and honored, and to be sur- 
rounded with safe -guards and encouragements, nothing 
seems clearer than that the class of laborers should stand 
preeminent. And yet th^ fate of the laborer has gene- 
rally been a hard fate in our world. The laborers with 
the mind, although, their great works have eventually 
compelled the admiration of mankind, and their tombs 
have been wreathed with garlands; alas! in how many 
instances have they, while living, been neglected, or per- 
secuted, or given over to withering poverty. The story 
of genius is an old, sad, and well known story. 

The laborers with the hands have been |still more 
severely dealt with. From the building of the pyramids 
to the growing of cotton on southern plantations, what 
hard centuries of degraded and enslaved labor have passed 
over the. world! In this false state of things, the man 
of idleness who contributed nothing to the common good ; 
but, who lived upon the fruits of labor exacted with the 
mailed hand, became the gentleman — the lord: while, 
the laborer, whose manly industry kept the world alive 
and produced the wealth of nations, became the serf, 
tha bondsman, the slave. And labor, upon which all de- 
pended as the ministering power of all earthly blessings, 
became a degradation. 

It is not surprising that labor broke forth into struggles 



— -22 ~ 

for its rights ■ — for the riglit of free scope to exercise 
itself; for the right of appropriating and enjoying its 
own fruits; for the right of educating itself and enlai'ging 
the sphere of its enjoyment; for the right to think, to 
speak, and to act as God has given this right to all 
men; for social and political freedom. On the banks of 
Father Rhine are many ruined castles and towers. They 
stand there to day monuments of the victorious struggles 
of labor against its oppressors. Labor has had its ad- 
vocates and its heroes, and its rights have been vindi- 
cated. Nothing so marks the progress of civilisation, the 
spread of christian ideas, and the triumphs of political 
economy as the elevation of labor. A nation of enslaved 
laborers can never develope its resources to the highest 
degrees of National wealth , reach a humane and christian 
civilisation, or gain trustful guarantees of perpetuity. 
The people really compose the Nation; the body of the 
people must always be laborers; the advance of a nation, 
therefore, keeps pace with the improvement if its labor- 
ing population, whether considered in the light of numbers, 
or of productive forces. 

With the wise and noble act of the enlightened Czar 
of Russia, the enslavement of labor has ceased in Europe. 
It nov/ only remains for the different governments to carry 
out the benign policy of our age; and, by the universal 
dittiision of knowledge, and all wise provisions for encou- 
raghig and honoring labor, to elevate the masses to the 
self conscious worth and dignity which properly belongs 
to all men, because they are men. 

It is remarkable that in what claimed to be the freest 
nation — the great Republic, there should have existed 
the most intense and infamous form of enslaved labor. 
It did not exist throughout the Republic but only in a 
part of it. But it exerted an influence more or less 



- 23 — 

powerful every where, and was plotting and striving to 
become universal when the great struggle began. It 
was slave labor entering the lists against free labor for 
the possession of the Republic. And when it found it 
could not at once possess the Avhole, it aimed to divide, 
and by division to distraet weaken and undermine; and 
then, having developed itself into a great military power, 
to conquer the whole, and to conquer in every direction, 
and find room to spread itself according to its necessities 
and its ambition. 

It formed itself into a system as will a power. It 
had its philosophy, its creed, and its social theory. Na- 
ture had made a distinction of races, and had given to 
the superior race the right to enslave the inferior. Both 
races were in their normal condition, when the one pos- 
sessed the lands, possessed all that was to be possessed, 
possessed the very persons of the inferior race, and exer- 
cised all the political power. The inferior race were to 
be laborers and nothing more, laborers absolutely go- 
verned by their masters. 

Labor was a necessity in the world, but it was also 
a degradation, and therefore belonged to the inferior 
race. The principle so broadly announced would be ap- 
plicable to every inferior race. As the ethnological 
question might ofttimes be difficult to determine, and 
the ethnological decision might not always be quietly 
submitted to; in the end, the strong arm would be likely 
to be appealed to , and the conquered race would become 
the inferior one. The conquerors would be lords, and 
the conquered slaves. The doctrine that might makes 
right would be thus revived,' and the reign of violence 
restored. In such a community labor is utterly disho- 
nored. For any one of the superior race to labor would 
be to descend to the level of the slave. The prevalence 



— 24 — 

of this sentiment, at the South, produced its fruits in the 
scorn with which the free laborers of the North were 
regarded, and spoken of as „Mudsills"; and in the multi- 
plication of poor ignorant and proud men, who claimed 
idleness as the attribute of gentlemen. 

To support this system, Christianity was perverted by 
new interpretations, free thought and free discussion were 
prohibited, and the circulation of books guarded; and 
to shut out more effectually the cliances of education 
to the slave and to bind him to his chattel condition, 
popular education was frowned upon, and the curse of 
ignorance entailed upon the poor whites as well as upon 
the negroes. 

The state of society, characterised by its advocates 
as one of the highest civilisation and refinement, thus 
produced, presents three classes; an Aristocracy of slave- 
holders ; slave-laborers ; and a mass of poor idle and 
ignorant white men, the material out of which to form 
an unscrupulous police force, and a host of ferocious 
soldiery. What is this but a return to feudalism with 
its worst features, but without its splendour and its 
romantic chivalry? 

In such a state of society there is scarcely any limit 
to the demoralisation which ensues. The chief right of man 
— the right of liberty , that which gives value to all other rights, 
trampled upon in regard to an entire class, and that too 
a class lying at the foundation of the whole structure 
of society, must generate a spirit prepared for the com- 
mission of any wrong, of any atrocity. The cruelties 
practised upon the slave, the violation of his domestic 
sanctities, the reckless sacrifice of his life, naturally fol- 
lowed his degradation to the condition of a chattel — a 
thing that could be bought and sold. And it was to be 
anticipated that the habits of wrong and cruelty, formed 



— 25 — 

in this relation, would make their appearance in other 
relations also. Such men will be violent and cruel to 
each other when their passions are inflamed. They are 
impatient of opposition to their opinions and interests. 
They are ready to tyrannise over any human being. In 
war they will scruple at no means of accomplishing their 
purposes, and wreaking their vengeance. In enslaving 
their fellow men, they have adready made war upon 
human nature. At what point shall they pause after this? 
Northern ideas and principles, the entire frame-work 
of Northern society are directly opposed to all this. At the 
North , the rights of labor are fully conceded. Here labor 
has been educated and honored from the beginning. Here 
is. free labor, free thought, free speech, and free schools 
— the universal diffusion of knowledge. The institutions 
of the North are all framed for peaceful and productive 
labor — labor with the mind, and labor with the hands. 
The rapid progress of the North, the amazing develop- 
ment of every form of improvement , the vast increase in 
wealth and its wide distribution, the inventive energy, 
the agriculture and manufactures, the commerce foreign 
and domestic, the mining operations, the population pres- 
sing into new territories, the multiplication and growth 
of cities, the development of educational institutions, the 
free planting of christian churches everywhere, the enter- 
prising and all embracing charities, shew the predominant 
ideas and the character of the poeple. They had no 
interest in war. There was nothing to tempt them to 
hostile aggressions. Theirs were the conquests and tri- 
umphs of peaceful and enriching industry, of knowledge, 
religion, and charity. They had the wide continent be- 
fore them, and every man was free to act out his ener- 
gies. It was a new development of the human race which 
claimed the sympathies of mankind. 



- 26 ~ 

So the South and tlie North were opposed to each 
other in their principles of human nature and of human 
labor. The sublime axiom of human equality and of 
human rights announced in the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence was practically adopted by the North, and practi- 
cally rejected by the South. 

At the time the Constitution was formed, the viru-* 
lence of slavery had not fully revealed itself, and it was 
expected by the framers of that instrument that econo- 
mical interests would concur with the influences of phi- 
lanthropy and Christianity in removing the one dark evil 
from our land. But when the improved methods of cotton- 
cultivation came in, such possibilities of wealth and power 
were revealed, that cupidity and ambition from that mo- 
ment proclaimed its perpetuation. It soon became evi- 
dent that to perpetuate it, it must be spread indefinitely. 
Slave labor is the most expensive form of labor, and to 
become profitable must admit of the concentration of 
numerous laborers upon fresh virgin soils, to ensure large 
products and rapid returns. Given, a full and constant 
supply of such soils , and a full and constant supply of 
slaves , and there is no limit to the accumulation of 
wealth by the cotton-cultivation. This constant supply of 
soil and slaves was the problem of the South, which was 
to be worked out by occupying the territories of the Union 
with slave-labor, by conquering new territories from with- 
out, and by ultimately reopening the slave trade. 

The supply of fresh soils in new territories was re- 
quired not only for the increase of the cotton-cultivation, 
but also for the maintainance of that already in existence. 
Under the system of slave-labor, when a soil is exhausted 
by large and profitable cultivation, it is forsaken, simply, 
because slave labor is both too unskillful and too expen- 
sive to recuperate it. It is a system, therefore, of the 



— 27 — 

constant invasion of nature: exhausting to invade, and 
invading to exhaust. Whatever be done with the ex- 
hausted territory, it can no longer be, profitably, culti- 
vated by slave -labour. This statement is borne out by 
the declarations of slaveholders themselves, and by the 
whole history of slavery in America. 

If slavery were confined within a given teritory, it 
would die out from the exhaustion of the soil. The slave- 
holders determined that it should not die out; on the 
contrary, that it should be perpetuated and spread into 
the dimensions of an ever aggressing slave Empire. And 
first of all, it was necessary that it should have free ac- 
cess to the territories of the Union. Here was the point 
of direct collision between the North and the South. 

To deny it to the territories was equivalent to denying 
its extension, at all ; was to confine it to its old limits and 
to leave it to the operation of laws which, it was believed, 
would bring about its extinction. 

Without going into a history of this controversy, it is 
sufficient for our purpuse to remark that Abraham Lin- 
coln first became greatly distinguished as a political leader 
and a political debater, in relation to this question of 
admitting slavelabor into the free territories of the Union; 
and that he became President of the United States as the 
representative of the principle that slavelabor should be 
admitted into these free territories no more than into 
the free states themselves. By the decision of the Su- 
preme Court in the Dred Scott case, Congress had no 
power to prohibit the admission of. slavery into the ter- 
ritories ; and the implication was strong that slavery might 
be introduced into the free states , also , like any other 
property. The entire Government and the i^upreme Court 
were under the controlling influence of the slave power. 



— 28 - 

There was evidently a conspiracy to make slavery a na- 
tional institution. 

The Republican party, the party v^rhich elected Lincoln, 
was purely a party of the North. The free laborers of 
the North elected a free laborer of the North to be their 
representative, as well as the head of the nation, in their 
great struggle against the progress of slavelabor. His 
origin, his training, his principles and sympathies, as well 
as his eminent abihty, qualified him for this position. 
Two years before, in his emphatic language, he had an- 
nounced the approaching crisis of the Nation: "A house 
divided against itself cannot stand. I believe that this 
Government cannot endure permanently half slave and 
half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — 
I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it 
will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, 
or all the other. Either. the opponents of slavery will 
arrest the further spread of it and place it where the 
public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course 
of ultimate extinction, or its advocates will push it for- 
ward till it shall become alike lawful in all the states, 
old as well as new. North as well as South." At the 
same time, he announced the great principle of the rights 
of labor, on which ho took his stand in the contest: "There 
is no reason in the world why the negro is not entitled 
to all the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration 
of Independance, the rights of life liberty and the pursuit 
of happiness. I hold that he is as much entitled to 
these as the white man. He may not be my equal in 
many respects — certainly not in color, perhaps not in 
moral and intellectual endowment. But in the right to 
eat the bread, without the leave of any body else, which 
his own hand earns, he is my equal and the equal of 
every living man." 



— 29 — 

Lincoln and his party designed to vindicate, protect, 
and secure the rights of labor by political measures 
peaceful and constitutional. They would effect a revision 
of the decisions of the Supreme Court by a purification 
and reorganisation of the Bench. They would reform the 
national legislation, and the national policy. They would 
place slavery within the limits assigned it by the con- 
stitution, and by the fathers of the Republic, and where, 
it was hoped, it would ultimately fade away. 

But the South did not suffer it to be a peaceful poli- 
tical struggle. The absurd doctrine of State-Sovereignty, 
and the right of states to secede from the nation, long 
cherished and not unfrequently spoken out, tliey now 
put in practice, upon the election of Lincoln, They plunged 
the Nation into civil war — a war of the slave power 
against free labor and the rights of man — the slave 
Aristocracy of the South against the Democracy of the 
North. 

On the part of the North, it is a war, we say, to 
vindicate the rights of labor. But in this, it is also a 
war for liberty in the largest sense, for humanity and 
justice, for Christianity itself. 

In estimating the value and the glory of the cause, 
to which Lincoln devoted himself and to which he has fallen 
a sacrifice, it is necessary to add one thing more — this 
war as waged by the North is a war for peace. The line 
dividing the Empire, which the South proposed to create, 
from the Free States could be only an imaginary line. 
Between these regions there are no natural barriers of 
mountains, rivers, and inland seas. Such barriers are al- 
ways important to the peace of nations. European nations 
separated by only an imaginary line, do, indeed, avoid 
collisions upon their borders; but, it must be recollected, 
that there is nothing in their respective institutions and 



— 80 — 

personal cliaracieristics to provoke liostility. Thus Prus- 
sia and Saxony are separated by only an imaginary line; 
but the people on either side are substantially the same 
people, with similar ideas, institutions, and interests. 
But the line dividing the southern from the northern 
states, in the proposed distribution of Empire, would be a 
line marking the boundaries of slave and free labor — the 
boundaries of ideas and institutions the most opposite and 
hostile possible. Under one constitution and government, 
with a policy of compromises , with a fugitive slave -law, 
with political parties intertwining their interests north and 
south, with southern influence predominant in the adminis- 
tration of public aifairs, the slave power was not content, 
but, was ever agitating for greater immunities. On the 
other hand, free labor could not be content under tlie 
pressure of its powerful and unscrupulous oi3poncnt. The 
innnate hostility of the two to each other could not be 
repressed. Had the U lion remained undisturbed, the con- 
flict would have been purely moral and political , and 
would have continued until 01:^.6 parly or the other liad 
gained the ascendency. In the language of Lincoln, who 
contemplated only a peaceful controversy, the opponents 
of slavery would arrest the further spread of it, or its 
advocates would push it forward until it sliould become 
alike lawful in all the states. 

Now, when the Slave -states demanded a division of 
the Union, whatever may have been their professions, 
they could not have regarded it as a means of peace, 
but, as a measure which would give them the advantage 
in a war which must inevitably ensue. By the election 
of Lincoln they had lost ground in the moral and poli- 
tical conflict: they, therefore, jietermined to commit the 
question to the arbitrament of arms. We have it from 
their ov/n lips, that tliey looked for a disruption of the 



— 31 — 

Free States, as a consequence of secession ; and that they 
expected at once an accession of the North -western 
states immediately interested in the navigation of the 
Mississippi. 

But wherever the dividing line might be drawn — an 
imaginary line , say, of fifteen hundred miles, they knew, 
as well as the Free States, that it must become the fiery 
line of battle. Slave labor and free labor standing face 
to face close upon the dividing line, each having its own 
domain, each under its own banner, no longer held in 
check by their relations to a common government, with 
no more fugitive-slave laws and compromises; the proud 
and arrogant slaveholder, on the one border, eyeing with 
scorn, contempt, and bitter suspicion, his neighbor the free 
laborer, on the other border; the free laborer ever feeling 
himself insulted by the afiected aristocratic superiority 
of the other, with no ground for this claim of superiority 
but the constant perpetration of what in his eyes was a 
most infamous crime; the miserable slaves on the one 
border ever looking over into the other as filled with 
protectors, and „cities of refuge" — to them a region of 
constant hope; — the hearts of the whole mass of slaves 
in the slave Empire turning to that dividing line, which 
once crossed, they became free men; the constant flight 
of slaves, and the eager and fiery pursuit with arms and 
bloodhounds by men who would not mark narrowly the 
dividing line; strong police forces patrolling the borders 
on either side to prevent mutual trespass; a line of for- 
tifications on either side filled with soldiery; stringent 
regulations as to trade and all intercourse; the products 
of the free states of the west struggling for exit by the 
Mississippi chained by thf, slave power; all the relations 
and intercourse of the two nations alive with the mutual 
jealousies, suspicion, fear, and hate of slave labor and 



— 32 — 

free labor: — What must be the result? Beginning with 
petty personal collisions, the tide of hostility swells more 
and more, until armies rush together in battle, and a 
war begins which can end only in the extinction or triumph 
of slavery. The geographical unity of our country, and 
the irreconcilable nature of the opposing principles and 
institutions render this inevitable. Like the war between 
Spain and Holland, this war may consume the best part 
of a century; but there is no point at which it can pause, 
until, victory decisive and absolute perches on one stan- 
dard or the other. 

Had the government of the United States weakly 
yielded to secession, the South would have had time to con- 
solidate its government, to collect its strength, and to 
prepare its front of battle; and, perhaps, by its intrigues 
to sow dissension among the free states. But the go- 
vernment did not yield, and the war was precipitated by 
the. attack upon Fort Sumpter, and secession became at 
once bloody rebellion. The war on the part of the South 
had not now the dignity of a war carried on by an ack- 
nowledged government, 

Abraham Lincoln, true to his oath of office, took up 
the defence of the Nation against the armed insurgents. 
He met the evil in its inception. In the development 
and progress of this war, he struck at its very principle. 
In its triumphant close, he sweeps slavery and the slave- 
holder from the land. The triumph of liberty and hu- 
manity is also the triumph of peace. The cause of this 
war, and the occasion of all war, in the future, is removed. 

There never has been , and it is not conceivable that 
there ever can be, any occasion of war between the free 
United States. There never has been, there never can 
be, any occasion of war between the states of New 
England; between New England and New York; between 



- 33 - 

Pennsylvania and Ohio, l)etween Illinois and Indiana; or 
between Iowa and Wisconsin. The interests of the Free 
States are so completely identified, and their brother- 
hood so perfect , tliat we might as well look for occasions 
of war between the different shires of England. Now, 
let all the States become free States, and the conditions 
of peace are fulfilled for the whole land. Then Penn- 
sylvania will have no more occasion of war with Virginia 
than with Oliio; Massachusetlis no more occasion of 
war with South -Carolina than with Connecticut. Still 
more, the entire United States become now a great 
peaceful power in relation to the whole world. There 
are statesmen in Europe who have looked upon the suc- 
cess of the South and the destruction of the Union as 
important to the peace of the World. Has the division 
of Europe into numerous states preserved the peace of 
Europe? Were America divided into several nations, there 
would be standing armies , the art of war would be 
cultivated, and a warlike spirit would be kept alive. 
Had the South prevailed, it would, unquestionably, have 
been a great, a ferocious, an oppresive military power. 
But, let us have free states — united free states, from 
the northern lakes to the gulf of Mexico, and we dwell 
in peace with each other, and with the whole world. 
War is not the normal condition of nations. Men are 
formed into nations not, that by an union of strength 
they may destroy their fellow men, and impoverish the 
earth; but, that by the united labors of their minds 
and hands they may improve the earth, improve 
their own condition, and do their part to benefit man- 
kind. Nations highly civilized and in a prosperous 
condition, are reluctffit to leave the blessings of 
peace for the toils and hazards of war. How happy they 



— 34 — 

are to return from war to the blessings of peace ! War is 
the choice only of Barbarians. 

With the works to be accomplished on our continent, 
in agriculture, manufactures, and commerce; the fair fields 
to be won, the wealth to be gained; the arts of civili- 
sation and refinement to be cultivated ; the social and 
political happiness to be achieved under our free institu- 
tions ; what temptations have we to destroy each other, 
or to invade the peace of other nations '? We are a nation 
of free laborers working for our own good, and for the 
good of the world. Beneficicnt industry — industry in 
all that promotes human welfare, is the principle of our 
national life, the secret of our growth and prosperity. 
Nothing could have interrupted our career, or thrown a 
cloud over our destiny, but such an accident as slavery 

— accident we may call it, for it was forced upon us in 
our colonial state, and did not grow up out of ourselves 

— the accident of a disease attacking the very seat of 
life and withering our strength. If war be the reaction 
which effects our cure, we must submit to it; but when 
the cure is effected, a repetition of the reaction would 
become only another form of disease. 

Our national health restored, we return to our natu- 
ral destiny, peace and the arts of peace. 

If Abraham Lincoln be a crowned martyr in the cause 
of free labor, of liberty in the largest sense, of humanity, 
justice, and Christianity, we add another splendour to his 
crown when we are permitted to say, he was also, a mar- 
tyr in the cause of peace. Nothing could be more grateful 
to his own gentle and merciful spirit than to interpret 
his mission as one of peace on earth and good will 
among men. 

It remains to consider the wisdom and fidelity with 



— 35 — 

wliicli he fulfilled his trust. The great principle which 
guided Lincoln in his administration of the government 
during the tremendous struggle in which its very existence 
was involved, was, that he was the servant of the people 
and the representative of their sovereignty. The war was 
not his war; it was the war of the people, the w^ar of 
free labor. His was not the prower to carry on the w-ar. 
He was not a despot with a standing army, obedient to 
his will. The war must be carried on by the people — 
by the free laborers of the North. He, indeed, had 
authority to order a conscription, he was commander 
in chief. But he well knew that if the hearts of the 
people were not in the work the strength and vigor 
necessary to accomplish it would be wanting. The North 
was also divided into parties. There were sympathisers 
with the South, there were even traitors on the soil of 
freedom. It was necessary that the people should declare 
themselves; that they should commit themselves unequi- 
vocally to the great cause. There is no reason to be- 
lieve that he ever doubted the people, or that his con- 
fidence in the result was ever staggered. Any apparent 
delay or hesitation was not the result of w^eakness, but 
of a determination not to impair, by any assumption on 
his part , the consciousness of responsibility and power, on 
the part of the people. It is a beautiful feature in his 
character — a rare feature, and one that stamps him 
with true greatness — that while in the darkest days of 
the struggle he was cheerful, unmoved, and trustful; in 
the hour of his greatest triumph, when by an overwhel- 
wing majority he had been called the second time to the 
Presidential Chair and all his principles and his admi- 
nistration had been sealed with the popular approbation, 
when the armies w^ere victorious, the rebellion crushed, 
and he entered the rebel capital as a conqueror, he never 



— 36 — 

for a Tnoment lost the balance of his inind, exhibited no 
elation, pride, arrogance, or vindictivencss, and was never 
less lordly and tyrannical. In the zenith of his power and 
fame he was the same unpretending Abrraham Lincoln; as 
much the servant of tlie people as at the beginning of his career. 
In carrying out the principle of eliciting expressions of 
the popular will, he first called for 75,000 volunteers, for 
the purpose of repossessing the government of the fortresses 
arsenals and other public property which the rebels had 
seized. Not only 75,000 obeyed the call, but hundreds 
of thousands appeared ready to follow. Again he called 
for half a million, as the war swelled in its dimensions, 
and 700,000 sprang to arms. At one period of the war 
the number who offered themselves was so great, that 
the volunteering, perhaps injudiciously, was checked. 
Throughout the entire war, conscription has been resorted 
to, only, to a limited extent; and principally at the later 
periods. The payment of high bounties does not take 
away from the grandeur of the movement, but rightly 
considered reveals a high sense of justice in the Ameri- 
can people. They believed that the families of soldiers 
in the field, ought to be provided for. A large portion 
of the bounties and wages paid to soldiers was transmit- 
ted to wives and children, or to others dependent upon 
them. There are instances where poor men have bought 
a house and land with their bounty -money as a home 
and support for their families, and have gone to the war 
never to return. The patriotism which led them to sa- 
crifice their lives, was not less genuine that it was min- 
gled with a tender care for those who were left behind. 
It was but just in those who did not share the perils of 
battle to enable him who went into the field to make 
this provision for those who looked to him for support. 
The government has been inspired by the popular feeling 



— 37 - 

in the provision it has made for the families of the slain: 
36,000 widows are already on its pension roll. Indeed 
the display of philanthropy is one of the most remarka- 
ble features of our great struggle. The Sanitary Commis- 
sion has raised, Ly voluntary subscription, more than thirty 
millions of dollars for the relief of wounded and sick 
soldiers. Its agents have been found on every battle field, 
in every hospital. The Christian Commission has provi- 
ded the camps and hospitals with books, and has brought 
religious consolation to the wounded, sick, and dying. In 
all this, the hearts of the people responded to the call 
of the President, and proved to him that they were ear- 
nest in the great cause, as the cause of God and hu- 
manity. 

The President applied, also, his principle of waiting on 
the manifestations of the popular sentiment, to the great 
question of emancipation, in reality the fundamental 
question. His own sentiments on the subject of slavery 
had long before been fully declared. No one could doubt 
that he regarded its extinction as necessary to the per- 
petuity of the Republic, as well as an act of justice. But 
as President of the United States, in his civil capacity, 
he had no power to abolish it. Nor had Congress any 
power over it. The power to abolish it was reserved to 
the states in which it existed. It was only after rebel- 
lion had taken place that, as commander in chief, he 
could proclaim emancipation as a military necessity. 
Perhaps, in the end, the judgment Avill be arrived at, 
that the act of rebellion itself dissolved the relation of 
master and slave. But so widely did prejudices prevail 
against Abolitionism , and so bitter had been the strife of 
parties, that the thunder of many battles was necessary 
to clear up the political atmosphere, to enable the people 
to see the full merits of the contest. Lincoln had full 



- 38 - 

assurance that the heart of the North was opposed to 
slavery. He knew that the time would come when the 
tide of popular conviction and energy would he at the 
full. He would not forestall the mighty action of the na- 
tion by the weaker action of an iudividual, even after the 
military necessity , in his own judgment, had arrived. He 
was not mistaken: the time came: and when he proclaimed 
emancipation it was not a mere display of his own 
authority, of doubtful success; but an expression of the 
sentiment and purpose of the majority of the people. 
His adherence to this principle may appear to many to 
have involved him in perilous delays. Certainly, it de- 
prived him of the quick decision and the energy of a dic- 
tator: But it secured the Itepublic from the danger of 
perishing by its deliverers, after it had triumphed over 
its foes. All must acknowledge, too, that howewer slow 
he may have been in arriving at liis conclusions, and in 
maturing his purposes, it was never necessary for him 
to retrace his steps, nor did he ever waver or falter in 
execution. 

This remarkable and leading characteristic of his pu- 
blic measures, arose not only from a just appreciation of 
what belongs to the oftice of the Chief Magistrate of a 
Republic; but, sprung also from llie very depths of a 
nature where modesty and firmness were rarely and ad- 
mirably balanced. This trait was no less conspicuous in 
his readiness to receive counsel, while his ultimate deci- 
sions were made with manly independence, and were 
unflinchingly carried out. 

In the prosecution of the war, there was no lack of 
soldiers, or of arms and munitions. The patriotism, M'ealth, 
and energy of the nation supplied these. Nor was there 
a deficiency of educated officers and engineers. Our mi- 
litary schools, and, above all, the National Academy at 



— 39 — 

West-Point on the Hudson river, liad afforded admirable 
tra,ining to a large number; part of whom held ai^point- 
meuts in the army, and many who had retired from the 
army stood ready to obey their country's call in any 
emergency. The consequence was, that not many mouths 
elapsed, after the commencement of the war, before the 
nation, roused all the more by the disaster at Bull's Pam, 
produced in the field a large, well appointed, and well 
disciphned army under the command of General M'Clellan. 
There were armies also at other points. Our experience 
in the Mexican war, and in the present war, has proved 
to us, that with educated officers, our volunteers, from the 
habit of quick self-adaptation acquired in American life, 
are very rapidly moulded into soldiers by military drill. 
The want that we experienced at the beginning of the 
w'ar w^as the want of a great commander, one who should 
unite with a military education all those qualities which 
are expressed by the one word — strategy. An army is 
a force: the "genius of a great commander becomes the 
law to direct it to the accomplishment of its proper ends. 
Our great commander in previous wars was disqualified 
by age. We had to find a new one; and one competent 
to command armies of unexampled magnitude, operating 
upon a theatre of unexampled extent, and amid difficul- 
ties that presented new problems in the art of war. For 
two years the war may be called a war of experiments 
to find a general. At last he was found; and with him, 
as always happens, appeared others fitted to act with 
him. It is one of the prime qualities which make^ a 
great commander that he knows how to select his subor- 
dinates. It was a rare merit in Lincoln that he succeeded 
in finding the great commander. He had no favorites 
to advance: he had within his own bosom no jealous fears 
to propitiate: he w-as cool and sagacious in his judgment, 



— 40 — 

and impartial and firm in his decisions. Nevertheless, he 
had to bear with mediocrity and pretension, when sur- 
rounded with popular favor, to an extent that might have 
worn out the patience of any other man ; and was- com- 
pelled to face disappointments which, beyond the wound- 
ing of his own heart , involved loss of reputation to worthy 
men, serious disasters to the army, discouragement to 
the nation, and exposure to the criticisms of excited and 
alarmed patriots, and the censures of enemies lying in 
wait for his ruin. But, coolly, calmly, patiently, bravely 
he persevered; losing no hope, and only collecting fresh 
resolution from every failure. And so the mighty war 
went on, until at length amid its ever changing fortunes, 
like the prophet seeking for the "Lord's anointed", he 
discerned the Hero of the war. It grew out of his wis- 
dom, his modesty, his magnanimity, that whenever he 
appointed a general, he supplied him ungrudgingly with 
all the material of war, and committed the manage- 
ment of the war to him without reserve. He had 
done so in the case of M'Clellan and other generals. 
And he never interfered except in the utmost exigency, 
or when results tought him that a change in the command 
had become necessary. When he had placed Grant in 
command, it became obvious to him and to the whole 
nation that experiments were at an end, and that the 
proper man had found his proper place. Had Lincoln 
been more ambitious, and less patriotic, he might have 
envied the great leader of our armies, and have sought 
to appropriate to himself a share of the glory of victory. 
But there was in him no trace of such a disposition. 
He neither affected to direct the military movements, 
nor to claim the merit of success. He supplied what- 
ever was necessary with the whole energy of the govern- 
ment, and left the general undisturbed to plan the mo- 



— 41 ~ 

vements, and to lead the armies. It was singular good 
fortune for our country that the two men, in whose hands 
her fates seemed to lie , were so similar and congenial 
in the modesty, unselfishness, and magnanimity of their 
natures, in their patriotic intentions, in their clear com- 
prehension of the scope of the war , and of what it involved 
to our country and to mankind, and in their immoveable 
determination to close the war, only, with the procla- 
mation of liberty to the slave made good, and the Union 
restored. 

What Mr. Lincoln was in his relations to his generals, 
he was also in his relations to his cabinet. He was 
neither jealous, suspicious nor arbitrary. Maintaining his 
proper positon as the head of the government, and never 
evading his own responsibilities; he, at the same time, 
accorded to every one around him the fullest opportu- 
nities to fill out the functions which belonged to his de- 
partment, to bear the burden of its duties, and to win 
all the honors of wise and successful service rendered to 
the Nation. 

The remark has frequently been made that the war 
would not have been protracted through so many years 
had there been a large standing army maintained by 
our government. This remark is not well considered. 
As a peaceful nation occupying a position isolated from 
the great powers of the earth , we had no use for a large 
standing army. Besides, such an army would have been 
one of the most appalling sources of danger upon the 
breaking out of the rebellion. The machinations of the con- 
spirators which embraced the seizure of the forts and 
arsenals , and the corruption of officers of the government 
civil and military, in case of a large standing army, 
would have directed their main efforts, through years of 
preparation, to gain a control of the whole military powder, 



— 42 — 

Accomplishing this , they would have regarded their work 
as done. The probabilities of success in this scheme 
would have been great. A standing army is necessarily 
more or less separated from the people, and grows into 
a peculiar community, with sentiments, views and aims, 
removed from jiopular interests and the arts of peace. 
War is its normal employment; and it always looks for- 
ward to war as aifording the opportunities for action, 
and for the gains and honors after which it naturally 
asfjires. Of all forms of authority that of its officers 
is the only one immediately felt and respected; where 
all the subordinates centre in a chief, in whom the abi- 
lity to command assumes the charm of majesty. A stand- 
ing army is a despotic organisation, and is despotic in 
its sympathies. In a Republic it is prone to degenerate 
into a force arrayed against the people. The Roman 
Empire grew out of the Roman Republic by the force of 
a military organisation. Had the slave power of the 
South succeeded in drawing around it the sympathies of 
a powerful standing army, tlie freemen of the North would 
have had a still sterner work before them than the last 
four years have revealed; and their complete and secure 
triumph could have been achieved only by the utter de- 
struction of the despotic army as well as of slavery, 'as 
it can now be achieved only by the destruction of the 
military power of the South and of slavery. The true 
soldiers of a free people are the people themselves, who 
go from the plough to the battle field, and return from 
the battle field to the plough. A military training may 
enter into the common education of such a people; but 
their own patriotic hearts, and their own strong arms 
form their mightiest and safest defence. 

It was not a standing army we required. We re- 
quired only that which every nation requires in time of 



— 43 — 

war, and which has so often turned the balance of victory 
— we required a great heroic general. Standing armies 
perfectly drilled do not ensure this. The history of war 
is rich in examples of disciplined armies defeated by 
inferior numbers through the strategy and energy of an 
original genius in the art of war. But it is only in the 
experience of Avar arousing human energies that the Hero 
appears. It was the experience of war that gave to 
Prussia a Frederic and a Bliicher. It was the experience 
of war that gave to England a Cromwell, a Nelson and 
a Wellington. It was the experience of war that gave 
to France a Napoleon and his marshalls. It was the 
experience of war that gave to America a Washington. 
It is the experience of war, now again, which has given 
us a Grant. 

Lincoln trusted in the voluntary uprising of a free 
people , and he trusted in the true and great hearted 
commander, whom the experience* of the war had re- 
vealed to him. But more than all, he trusted in God. He 
believed in a Providence that watches the fall of a 
sparrow, and the conflicts of nations. In his jDublic 
speeches and official proclamations, and in his familiar 
conversations he evinced his belief and trust in a God 
of truth and justice. He devoutly believed that the 
cause of his country was one of truth and justice, and 
therefore dear to God. His piety was unpretending like 
all his virtues, but like them, too, laid in the foundations 
of his being. Hence, whatever trials he and his coun- 
try might be called to pass through, he faltered not in 
his confidence of a happy ending. Justice might demand 
that the wealth accumulated by unrequited labor should 
be swept away, that every drop of blood drawn by the 
lash should be atoned for, by a corresponding drop drawn 
by the sword; but, he saw beyond the days of trial and 



— 44 — 

the bloody penance, the days of peace and brotherhood 
returning; a purified constitution and a regenerated 
j)eople, a reconstructed Union resting securely on the 
rights of man; sister states embracing each other from 
ocean to ocean; his country one and undivided free 
and independent, stretching its peaceful and prosperous 
existence through the coming centuries, and collecting 
around itself the sympathies and hopes of manlciud. It 
was for his Avhole country, the South as well as the North, 
the East as well as the West, that he labored, and drea- 
med dreams of peace i)rosperity and glory. He had ac- 
complished the first part of his Avork — he had destroyed 
slavery and the military power of the South; he was 
about to enter upon the second part — the part so con- 
genial to his nature — to reconstruct and unite, to re- 
vive, to heal, and reanimate the nation, Avhen he was 
laid low by an act of vengeance which civilized and 
christian nations will not justify even when a tyrant is 
its object, and which fills them with horror and dismay 
when a just man and a friend of humanity becomes its 
victim. No one doubts the greatness of the loss: no one 
palliates the enormity of the crime. 

But the Avork which Lincoln left unfinished Avill not 
remain unfinished. The man who takes his place Avas, 
like him , a humble laborer originally ; like him Avas 
selfeducated, and educated by the exigencies of a life 
spent in the public service, educated like Franklin and 
Cobden; a man Avho as a poor Avhile of the south has 
felt the iron heel of the slave poAver, and Avho during this 
rebellion has had experience of the vindictiveness of that 
power, as Avell as of losses on the field of battle ; a man 
of noble gifts, and pure patriotic aims. We shall miss 
the gentle and forgiving spirit of Lincoln, and a ray of 
sunshine Avill fade from the capitol Avith his benignant 



— 45 

smile. His raanly sense, his experienced wisdom , and liis 
playful humour formed a comhination too rich and origfual 
to he easily replaced. But his very death proves that 
the sterner justice which may characterise his successor 
may be demanded for the completion of his work. His 
principles live; his example cannot be forgotten; the 
great cause for which he died presses the more upon us 
in consequence of his deatli ; and the New President, and 
a united people , Avhile they touched his bier, have sworn 
in their hearts, that his work shall not remain unfinished. 
As for him, death came to him in the ripeness of his 
years, his virtues, and his fame. There is not a stain 
upon his fair and honored name. We look upon him as 
an honest man — God's noblest work. In him we have 
nothing to regret, but that we have lost him. 

„So live that when thy siuiimons comes to join 
The innumerable caravan, that moves 
To that mysterious realm, where each shall take 
His chamber in the silent halls of death, 
Thou go not like the quarry -slave at night, 
Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed 
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave, 
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch 
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams*'* 

So Abraham Lincoln lived and died. Although the 
drapery of his couch was stained by his pure patriot 
blood, no one doubts that it was wrapped about a peace- 
ful conscience, and that he laid down to pleasant dreams 
of „life and immortality." 

This good man will have his reward both here and 
in the other world. Here, one of the bright stars in 
the galaxy of history, he will be recorded among Heroes, 
Patriots and Martyrs. By his countrymen, his memory 
will be everlastingly honored, and tenderly cherished. Plis 
name will take its place beside the glorious name of 



— 46 — 

Washington: one laid the foundations of American li- 
berty: the other completed the work, by banishing sla- 
very from the land. Together they will go down to all 
the coming generations among "the few the immortal 
names that were not born to die." 

In that other world to which he has gone, he will 
join "the noble company of the Martyrs" and of "the 
Just made perfect." 

Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord: — 
Tliey rest from their lahours, and tlieir works 
do follow them. 



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